Hot gas to chill Yanks over the summer

Our American cousins will be keeping cool during the long hot summer using air conditioning powered by natural gas.

In fact they are predicted to use a record amount of 3.8 million megawatt hours. This is up 4% on last year.

For every one degree Fahrenheit increase above 65 degrees, it is predicted that an extra 140,000 MWh of natural gas-fired electricity and an additional 1.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas will be consumed each day.

Natural gas had long been the second-most common source of electricity in the US, until it overtook coal last April.

It is estimated that natural gas will provide 34% of electricity in the US this year, with coal expected to provide 30%, nuclear to provide 19% and renewables to provide 15%.